The largest diversity in the world of subterranean diving beetles (Dytiscidae) has been discovered in underground waters of the Australian arid zone. The majority of species are from the Dytiscidae genera Limbodessus Guignot, 1939 (Bidessini) and Paroster Sharp, 1882 (Hydroporini) and are distributed within two major regions: calcrete islands of central Western Australia and the Ngalia Basin of the Northern Territory. Here, we use an integrative approach based on morphological and molecular analyses...
The diving beetle genus Rhithrodytes Bameul, 1989 is endemic to areas surrounding the Western Mediterranean Basin, and currently includes six lotic species; three each in Europe and North Africa. Here we describe a striking new species, Rhithrodytes pantaleonii sp. nov., discovered during recent fieldwork in southwestern Sardinia.
The classification of highly adapted species in well-studied clades may be obscured by convergent character evolution. This is for example the case in aquatic lineages adapted to subterranean (and shallow subterranean) habitats, in which species usually possess reduced eyes and wings as well as translucent cuticles. In 1985, the terrestrial diving beetle genus and species Typhlodessus monteithi Brancucci (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) was described from a shallow subterranean habitat in New Caledonia...
We have compiled all available information regarding the presence of Ochthebius species in supratidal rockpools in the western Palaearctic, distinguishing species typical of these habitats from those whose presence is occasional...
In the framework of neutral theory of molecular evolution, genes specific to the development and function of eyes in subterranean animals living in permanent darkness are expected to evolve by relaxed selection, ultimately becoming pseudogenes. …
Morphologically cryptic lineages confound many estimates of global biodiversity and are often discovered in ecologically specialized taxa, subject to strong morphological constraint. Such a situation may apply in many extreme environments, including …
Two new species of the diving beetle genus Liodessus Guignot, 1939 are described from high mountain regions in Venezuela: Liodessus meridensis sp. nov. from Laguna de Mucabají, Mérida and L. venezuelensis sp. nov. from Laguna de Mucabají and below …
The Carabidae is by far the largest family of the Adephaga, with more than 40,000 described species. Whereas their phylogeny has been extensively studied, convergences and reversals in morphological traits prevent a robust phylogenetic concept so far. In this study, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genomes of Notiophilus quadripunctatus (Nebriinae) and Omophrom limbatum (Omophroninae) using high-throughput sequencing. Both mitogenomes consisted of a single circular DNA molecule that encoded the typical 13 protein-coding genes, two subunits of mitochondrial RNAs, 22 tRNAs and a putative control region. Our phylogenetic study placed Omophrom limbatum as sister taxon to all other analyzed ground beetle species whereas Notiophilus quadripunctatus was identified as sister to Nebria brevicollis as part of the Nebriinae. The analyses also support the monophyly of the Cicindelidae but place Trachypachus holmbergi (Trachypachidae) within the Carabidae. Nevertheless, almost all carabid subfamilies with more than one analyzed species were identified as monophyla.
The long-term geological stability of aquatic habitats has been demonstrated to be a determinant in the evolution of macroinvertebrate fauna, with species in running (lotic) waters having lower dispersal abilities, smaller ranges and higher gene flow between populations than species in standing (lentic) environments. Lotic species have been hypothesized...
We describe four species of Ochthebius subgenus Cobalius (Coleoptera, Hydraenidae) from coastal rockpools of the western Palaearctic Rregion: O. anzar sp. nov. (south Morocco, plus a dubious possible specimen from Lanzarote, Canary Islands), O. cortomaltese sp. nov. (Malta), O. evae sp. nov. (Atlantic coast of...